5th Adab Festival to kick off on Nov 25

Ameena Saiyid, the founder and director of Adab Festival, unveiled the speakers’ names and the highly anticipated programme for the 5th Adab Festival at a press conference on Monday.

The festival is set to take place at Habitt City, Sharae Faisal and Tipu Sultan Road, on November 25 and November 26 from 11:30am to 9pm.

Ameena Saiyid, who is also the pioneer of literature festivals in Pakistan and founder of Karachi and Islamabad literature festivals, provided a comprehensive overview of the festival and introduced some of the distinguished speakers of the two-day event.

In a young country like Pakistan, she said, we are lucky to have a rich and longstanding literary and cultural heritage and have a duty to preserve and build on it.

She said that it was believed in Pakistan that the golden days of Urdu were over; that Ghalib, Iqbal and Manto belonged to the past, Faiz was unique, and so on. “There was little enthusiasm for literature and reading books and the literary culture in Pakistan was almost barren,” she said.

Being in the business of books, she said, she felt that her job was not just to make books available but to involve the public in the literary world.

“I wanted to show the youth that, not just sports or soldiering, but literature too can have its heroes. Hence, I introduced this culture of literary festivals, and Adab Festival, since its inception, has been a platform for celebrating literature, fostering dialogue, and promoting an exchange of ideas,” she said.

This year, Adab Festival brings together a stellar lineup of speakers, including Javed Jabbar, Jehan Ara, Iftikhar Arif, Moeed Yusuf, Anjum Halai, Kishwar Naheed, Afzaal Syed, Noorul Huda Shah, Amar Sindhu, Arfana Mallah, Ahmed Shah, Pirzada Qasim, Peerzada Salman, Atif Badar, Yasmin Motasim, Stephen Lyon, Tanveer Anjum, Junaid Zuberi, Tariq Qaiser, Tasneem Ahmar, Zahid Hussain, Fatema Hassan, Zehra Nigah, Nadia Naqi, Syed Khawar Mehdi, Mumtaz Baloch, Dr Ishrat Hussain, Sima Kamil, Sultana Siddiqui, Mahtab Rashdi, Omar Shahid Hamid, Azad Iqbal, Liaquat Merchant, Khalid Anum, Nauman Naqvi, Nadia Naqi, Sarmad Ali, Syed Kaleem Imam, and Muhammad Ali Shaikh, who will enrich our understanding of the world and inspire us to explore new horizons.

There will be sessions on books including those on Betrayal by Omar Shahid Hamid, the Memoirs of Iskander Mirza, Honourbound to Pakistan in Duty, Destiny and Death edited by Syed Khawar Mehdi, Beyond the Fields by Aysha Baqir, Jinnah: A Life by Yasser Latif Hamdani, In Pursuit of an Ethical State: Reflections of a Police Chief by Syed Kaleem Imam, and Face to Face with Benazir by Zahid Hussain. Other sessions include Power Women of Pakistan, Higher Education, School Education, Down to the Last Dollar, From Boston to Beaconhouse (an interview of Moeed Yousuf), Cricket and the Pakistani Imagination, a Mushaira; a theatrical performance by Grips Theatre, discourses on Artificial Intelligence, Mental Health, and Mangroves, and a musical session with Azad Iqbal, eldest grandson of Allama Iqbal.

In addition to the enlightening sessions, the festival will host several book launches, including Jinnah: A Life, a MIRAAS - Photographing The Eminent, and a special book talk Lost To The World: A Memoir Of Faith, Family, and Five Years In Terrorist Captivity by Shahbaz Taseer, providing a platform for authors to share their latest works with a large audience.

Marking the fifth edition of the event, the festival promises to celebrate literature, ideas, and the vibrant cultural tapestry of our society. The impressive line-up of speakers and riveting sessions are a testament to the Adab Festival’s growing significance in promoting literature and fostering intellectual discourse.